I hadn’t thought about this yet but everyone around me is coming down with head colds that has a horrible cough and lots of sinus pressure. I haven’t been sick since my TN started and now I’m almost sick to my stomach with worry what will happen if I get sick. Will it trigger my TN? How horrible will it be? Ughhhh I really hate having to live in fear of situations.
Just got over bad head cold or virus. It left my TN alone. I’m sure every illness is different and of coarse each individual . Hang in - loosely
hi ya heather ive had a terible flu and left me with sinunis trouble it had triggerd my tn of teirbile to having to take double amount of tablets than normal i do hope it will go away soon because it realy dose be very pain full hope u are ok
Hi,
I always get a flu shot. However, this year due to the fact I have been traveling more, I must have picked up the one flu bug not included with the shot. Anyway, the coughing was bad. It made the TN worse. The most difficult part is deciding if I should take cold meds on top of TN. I have not had the TN diagnosis for very long, but I have had chronic pain a long time. I always check with the pharmacist as to what I should do. They know how the drugs interact and mine have been wonderful on helping me out with the meds. The worst part is having to just stop and do nothing for awhile. Fortunately, I do not get a cold or flu that lasts for a long time very often. This year though was a tough one.
Linda
Hi have the most wonderful bout of cold at the moment, spent the day in bed feeling sorry for myself. Though felt like my heads about to blow up and can't blow my nose without the room spinning, TN has for once, behaved itself. Upped the drugs a wee bit to make sure :) Flu shots and avoiding infected others like the plague is always a good strategy though.
You don't have to live in fear of a cold if you take some colostrum when you are in germ filled situations or at the first sign you are catching one. I keep some Jarrow colostrum capsules in the fridge and for many years now dh and I have not had colds or flu and I believe it is because we take a couple of colostrum a day during those times.
Yes, I get flu shots and avoid sick people at all costs. Typically beginning in November and through February, I do not go to movies, the mall, or on a plane…due to recycled air. Even after all of that ducking and dodging, I still got sick this year. It did not make my TN any worse, which was a blessing, as the cough was unreal. I have had lesser colds, etc. that did trigger my TN and that is just pure misery…great advice here, def speak to your pharmacist if you need to add meds or up them, just to make sure they all jive together…and ‘try’ to relax…(I still have my viral infection and the TN is still at bay)
I have found that a cold or flu only seems to affect my TN if it involves blowing my nose a lot...because weirdly, blowing my nose and sneezing are triggers for me. I try to avoid being around sick people at all costs, and I always wash my hands frequently with alcohol based hand sanitizer, especially if I am out in public (like a store). I also take advantage of the disinfectant wipes that most stores provide, and wipe down the grocery cart handle before I touch it and then use another one to wipe my hands if I had to touch a door handle to get into the store. I know it seems germophobic, but it is well worth not having my TN get worse.
Not Again said:
I have found that a cold or flu only seems to affect my TN if it involves blowing my nose a lot...because weirdly, blowing my nose and sneezing are triggers for me. I try to avoid being around sick people at all costs, and I always wash my hands frequently with alcohol based hand sanitizer, especially if I am out in public (like a store). I also take advantage of the disinfectant wipes that most stores provide, and wipe down the grocery cart handle before I touch it and then use another one to wipe my hands if I had to touch a door handle to get into the store. I know it seems germophobic, but it is well worth not having my TN get worse.
Hahaha, I do all of the same things!! I am right there wiping carts, using my sleeves to open doors and am just one step away from being a hermit during cold/flu season…
Hi, with my TN, a couple of things happen when i get a cold or cough ( adn for me, there are more than one cranial neuralgia -- so it's a mixed bag, along w chronic severe neck strain:
my TN is not made worse; and, oddly, sometimes it is actually less painful when I gt a cold! [My PT explained this may be due to the body producing histamines.. sometimes, he does see patients whose pain is better while having a cold or flu!! -- good news, eh?]
Coughing, however is such a 'violent' ovement that it tends ot exacerbate my nerve pains, etc.
So I make sure to have some strong cough medicine w/ codeine to quell the cough.
That's my 2 cents worth -- hope you get throught eh cold/flu season w minimal adversity! ;-)
I know the fear. My kids and my husband had the flu 2 weeks ago…it finally got me 4 days ago. I was ok, until today. Every nose blowing session scared me. I took tons of Advil to keep the fever down, drank as much hot water with lemon and orange as I could…you just gotta keep going. Its tough, but…
Those are questions that no one can answer for you, because everyone's colds are different, and even from one cold to the next will act differently. It will make your stress worse if you worry about something that hasn't happened yet. You suffer twice. Once while worrying, and once with the cold. I've also found that most of the time, the real event is not as severe as I imagined it would be. So try to not worry. It may not happen at all, but if it does, you will deal with it at that time.
Sheila W. said:
Those are questions that no one can answer for you, because everyone's colds are different, and even from one cold to the next will act differently. It will make your stress worse if you worry about something that hasn't happened yet. You suffer twice. Once while worrying, and once with the cold. I've also found that most of the time, the real event is not as severe as I imagined it would be. So try to not worry. It may not happen at all, but if it does, you will deal with it at that time.
It definitely irritates mine and makes the pain worse. Honestly, pretty much every kind of illness inflames it for me. I’ve wondered whether it was to do with inflammation which then puts pressure on the nerve. Good luck and do all you can to prevent getting sick or you will be double miserable!
Thank you everyone for the replies. This is still so new to me and scary. It’s hard not to live in fear of the pain.
So don't live in fear, try and take each day at a time. If you're afraid, you are more likely to be tense and that's more likely to bring on TN too, I find. Check out some relaxation strategies you can use. A simple exercise I do one is to sit comfortably, facing forward. Find an object to your left in your periphery vision, and another to your right. Gently move your eyes from one object to another, pausing in the middle. This is really good exercise for getting through pain attacks, and i'm sure it'll help for relaxation too. Good luck, and I hope you keep well.
YOu make such good points.....<<<...everyone's colds are different... even from one cold to the next will act differently.>>>
We can also add that even *within each person* your experience may be different each time!* -- with neurological events, this seems to be the case!
Pamela Olson said:
Sheila W. said:Those are questions that no one can answer for you, because everyone's colds are different, and even from one cold to the next will act differently. It will make your stress worse if you worry about something that hasn't happened yet. You suffer twice. Once while worrying, and once with the cold. I've also found that most of the time, the real event is not as severe as I imagined it would be. So try to not worry. It may not happen at all, but if it does, you will deal with it at that time.
I find that sinus pressure does irritate my TN. I found out last fall that I have chronic sinusitis on the same side as the TN. The trick is to not allow a mucus build up so I use a strong saline solution of Hydra Sense or Otrivin, something like that and make sure to blow your nose GENTLY......whip together healthy smoothies for yourself to ward off catching anything and even if you do hopefully then it won't be too bad.
Good Luck to all!
i was sick a couple weeks back ... i dont know what i had but i was not able to keep anything down ... i was losing it from both ends and at same time ! ... i have never experienced that before ... i was worried my meds wouldnt work since i couldnt keep anything in my stomach ... surprise !!, no pain ... maybe the meds absorbed into my blood stream before my stomach rejected ... i did see some of the pills in my vomit ... sorry to sound gross ... i just feel fortunate that i wasnt in TN hell ... i did end up in the ER that night because i was severely dehydrated